Hello, Rhapsody. Real Networks’ online music store has finally launched a DRM-free download option on an apathetic unsuspecting public. Boasting a catalog of over 5 million songs, the new service allows customers to access their library for a mere $.99/song or $9.99/album. The pricing is relatively competitive, but considering how late they are to to DRM-free party, they might want to consider a fee-structure that is a bit more in line with Amazon/com’s $.89/song, $8.99 bargain basement average. Nevertheless, in an attempt to drum up excitement, Rhapsody is currently offering an entire album free of charge to the first 100,000 customers that sign up for the service. We wouldn’t recommend sticking around much after the free download hits your hard drive, but free music ain’t so bad, right? As an added incentive, the company is also making their online store available to Verizon subscribers by way of a special portal. It’s a decent solution, but we’d still wager that there are better and cheaper ways of getting music onto your handset.

when I click on the link to create an account I get a page not found error…

Don Louie

Can songs/albums be purchased and downloaded on the iphone(3g too), vzw and Sprint have allowed this for a while the only new thing for vzw is the price and offering full albums. That’s what I always wanted, buy the whole album instead of packs of songs, to be able to get a new one on the fly

Daniel

Do you have to download funky software though??? I dont trust Rhapsody/Real Networks when it comes to software thats for sure……

http://www.roembaur.com Roem

Thanks, BGR. Got my tunes… now I have to call the stupid number and wait on hold forever to cancel the account…

But what’s a little background music while I answer emails?

MarkM

Are they using the same 256 kbps VBR bit-rate as Amazon??

Who?

BGR obviously has no idea what Rhapsody was before this announcement. It’s primarily a music subscription service where you can stream and download Rhapsody’s entire catalog of 5 million songs for less than the price of a CD per month. Two catches: you can’t download to an iPhone or iPod (I use my AT&T Tilt), and the music will time out if you cancel your subscription (but why you would cancel your subscription if you liked music in the slightest is beyond me). It’s an amazing service. I don’t understand how people can deal with 30 second clips and paying 89 cents or more per song when services like Rhapsody exist.

I’ve been a Rhapsody subscriber since late 2003. I’ve never bought a song on iTunes or Amazon. Never regretted it once.

Don Louie

Does that mean Rhapsody can’t be downloaded OTA or is VCast only capable of that

Don Louie

I got a clue about the new service, it’s still $2/song OTA doesn’t say anything about a whole album. This will be a good thing if implemented right and may cause change

Galvatron

competition is good an this dosn’t reqire the ituns however the old real player client of olld brought me nightmares of aohells portal

Don Louie

G, you lost me after competition, I just want Sprint and Groove Mobile to follow suit